A Marvelous Musical

Last night, my family and I went to see Matilda the Musical at the Cambridge Theatre in London to have fun. The play is based on the book Matilda by Roald Dahl.

Matilda is a fun musical about a five year old girl named Matilda Wormwood (at our show Matilda was played by Lottie Sicilia) who is a little genius and loves to read books.  Unfortunately Matilda’s parents don’t like her and call her names so she plays pranks on them, like putting super glue on the inside of her dad’s hat and putting hair dye in his hair gel to make his hair turn green!

Before she has to go to school, Matilda spends most of her time at the library.  Mrs Phelps (played by Lisa Davina Phillip) is the librarian who loves to listen to Matilda’s stories.  She is very kind and a good friend to Matilda.  She has an island accent and it makes her sound so friendly when she laughs with Matilda.

When Matilda has to go to school she soon figures out that her principal, Miss Trunchbull (played by Alex Gaumond) is very mean to all the children.  One time a boy named Bruce (played by George King) stole a slice of her cake and she made him eat a huge cake way bigger even though he was full!  Trunchbull was  an Olympic hammer thrower and threw a little girl by the pig tails because she doesn’t like that hair style.  Then after she punishes them for the first time, she puts them in “chokey”, which is a cupboard full of spikes and nails.

Fortunately Matilda’s teacher, Miss Honey (played by Haley Flaherty) is very nice.

The play is all about Matilda and her adventures standing up to adults who are mean to her and her friends.

Matilda’s mom, Mrs Wormwood (played by Kay Murphy) is a great actress.  She is mean to Matilda and hates hearing her stories.  She loves ballroom dancing and singing and is a very funny character.  Her costume makes her character even more funny.  She has big hair all off to one side and wears a long skirt and dressy top.

Mr Wormwood (played by James Clyde) is really funny in his role.  He is also mean to Matilda.  He calls her a boy so Matilda has to keep reminding him that she is a girl.  His costume is hilarious! He wore a green and black suit and had to wear a hat because he could not take it off because of Matilda’s  glue prank.

I loved the effects and lighting for the whole play – the set was colourful with letters and books everywhere.

I really enjoyed the scene when Matilda goes to Miss Honey’s house and finds out that Miss Trunchbull is Miss Honey’s aunt and took away all of Miss Honeys things.  At this time the light flashes on and of like lightning when Matilda says “Miss Trunchbull.”  I also liked the effect when Matilda wrote on the chalkboard with her telekinesis.

I also really liked all the songs the children sang which were written by Tim Minchin.  I enjoyed the song called “Bruce” which is sung when Bruce is eating the chocolate cake and the whole class is cheering him on.  The song “Quiet” is also a favourite, because Trunchbull is yelling at all the children including Matilda but Matilda is just quiet and can’t hear her yelling.  “When I Grow Up” was fun because the children all take turns going on the four swings while singing and they all swing at the same time.  My absolute favorite song is “REVOLTING CHILDREN!” It is when all the children sing together about being revolting and are dancing on the desks and chairs.  It is awesome!!!!!

The play is very close to the book by Dahl.  There were some things that the play writer Dennis Kelly put in the play that were not in the book.  One thing they put in that I really liked was the story that Matilda told Mrs. Phelps about a wife who was an acrobat and a husband who was an escapologist.  They were so famous and had almost everything a person could want.  The one thing they wanted the most was a child.  When the wife was pregnant, her mean sister made her do the most dangerous act.  It involved swinging on the trapeze over sharp things while on fire with dynamite in her hair.  Meanwhile, on the other side, her husband had to escape from the cage, catch her hand and use the fire extinguisher to put out the fire.  Unfortunately, the fire extinguisher made their hands slippery and the wife fell and broke almost every bone in her body.  She died after giving birth to a baby girl. This is an important part in the musical so you’ll have to go and see it to find out what happens next!

I loved this play because there was awesome music, incredible effects and the children were amazing performers.  I think this musical is definitely worth seeing, but if you are not able to go see the musical, you should go to the library and read the book.

(All of the pictures were taken off the signs outside of the theatre and one inside the theatre before the show.)